All eyes may be on the Senate this year, but a half-dozen House races should provide some excitement, too.
Though Republicans are universally expected to keep control of the lower chamber, Election Night will give Democrats a chance to erode the margin of their majority and nip some of the GOP’s top recruits in the bud.
Even without big stakes, though, House races are always interesting.
Among the highlights are a campaign ad prominently featuring chicken fingers, a potential government-shutdown fatality and a guy who hopes his 20-count indictment won’t keep him from getting re-elected.
Here’s a look at some of the top contests.
Rep. Michael Grimm (R) vs. Domenic Recchia (D)
New York’s 11th Congressional district
Grimm stole the State of the Union show from President Obama in January when he threatened to break a journalist in two “like a boy” and then throw him off of a balcony.
That outburst came after the journalist asked Grimm about a campaign finance investigation he faced. Grimm faces a panoply of charges, including that he hired undocumented immigrants at his restaurant, Healthalicious.
Despite being an oppo researcher’s dream, Grimm is running a competitive race against Recchia. The Cook Political Report says it’s a toss-up, and a September poll from NY1 gave Grimm a four-point lead.
David Young (R) vs. Staci Appel (D)
Iowa’s 3rd district
Democrats have a lot to gain in this Southwest Iowa race. The district voted for both Obama and Republican Rep. Tom Latham in 2012.
With Latham’s retirement, it’s one of the top pick-up opportunities for Democrats.
Soft-spoken Republican nominee David Young, widely seen as the party establishment’s favorite, put up an odd TV ad with a baffling discussion of how much Iowans like good meals and a close-up of a fork being lowered toward chicken tenders.
If Appel beats him, she’s likely to hold the seat for the indefinite future.
Rep. Lee Terry (R) vs. Brad Ashford (D)
Nebraska’s 2nd district
Though the top prognosticators concur that this race leans in Terry’s favor, it’s far from a done deal.
Democrats see Terry as one of just a small handful of genuinely vulnerable Republican incumbents and have targeted him for saying he wouldn’t give up his paycheck during the October 2013 government shutdown because he had “a nice house and a kid in college.”
“Giving our paycheck away when you still worked and earned it? That’s just not going to fly,” the Republican added.
Rep. Mike Coffman (R) vs. Andrew Romanoff (D)
Colorado’s 6th district
This race is one of the priciest contests of the cycle, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, and also one of the tightest.
Incumbent Coffman, one of just a few Congressional Republicans to have expressed agnosticism about the president’s place of birth, stands to benefit if Republican Senate nominee Cory Gardner is doing as well as polls of that contest suggest.
Rep. Rick Nolan (D) vs. Stewart Mills (R)
Minnesota’s 8th district
Challenger Mills is just a political neophyte, but he already seems to have weathered a scandal.
The Republican learned about national media attention the hard way when pictures surfaced of him touching tongues with a woman who wasn’t his wife and drinking from a beer bong.
Despite that incident’s generating international headlines, Mills and Nolan’s race seems to be a dead heat. A Democratic tracking poll released last week suggests Nolan is broadening his lead over Mills, but the Cook Political Report still dubs it a toss-up.
Mills is one of the National Republican Congressional Committee’s most-touted candidates, so a win for Nolan would be a tough loss for the national Republican Party. It would also be a bit of a loss for Rep. Justin Amash, who would likely find an ideological fellow traveler in libertarian-leaning Mills.
Rep. Nick Rahall (D) vs. Evan Jenkins (R)
West Virginia’s 3rd district
While the states that neighbor it — Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio and Pennsylvania — seem to be turning steadily bluer, West Virginia is turning redder.
Rahall, a 19-term Democrat, is facing that reality in an election that could end his lengthy Congressional career. Cook rates the race a toss-up, and its outcome will be a strong indicator of whether West Virginia is turning as red as national Republicans hope.
